Colorado Rockies at Miami Marlins

This will be the eighth consecutive season that the Colorado Rockies open the season on the road. The Rockies have won three of the last four openers, losing in 2018 at Arizona, 8-2, but winning the three years prior -- 2017 at Milwaukee, 7-5, 2016 at Arizona, 10-5 and 2015 at Milwaukee, 10-0.

The Marlins have lost four consecutive season-opening games. The last time Miami won a season opener was 2014 at home against the Rockies. The Marlins won that game 10-1, and of the 18 starting players only two remain on their respective teams -- Charlie Blackmon and Nolan Arenado with Colorado.

Nolan Arenado homered off Patrick Corbin in the 2018 season opener, and over his last four Opening Days, Arenado is 9-for-16 (.563) with three home runs, eight RBI and seven runs scored.

Don Mattingly was 5-0 in Opening Day games with the Dodgers from 2011-15, but is 0-3 in his first three tries with the Marlins.

On August 15, 2018 in Atlanta, Jose Urena hit Ronald Acuna Jr. with the first pitch of the game and was ejected. From his next start to the end of the regular season, Urena was 6-0 with a 1.80 ERA in seven starts. Opponents hit .176 against him during that stretch, and he allowed more than one run only once.

Colorado Rockies left-hander Tyler Anderson is one of those rare pitchers who has better numbers at Coors Field than he does away from the high-altitude launch pad.

Last season, Anderson had a 4.15 ERA in 17 starts at Coors and a 5.02 ERA in 15 road starts.

On Saturday, he will work on improving the latter as he takes on the Miami Marlins in the third of a four-game, season-opening series that so far has produced a pair of Rockies victories.

Miami will counter with right-hander Pablo Lopez, who made his major league debut last season and went 2-4 with a 4.14 ERA in 10 starts.

Lopez added eight pounds of muscle to his 6-3, 200-pound frame over the off-seaon. Then, in spring training, he showed improved control -- just one walk in 20 innings -- and increased velocity.

"We saw the growth of Pablo Lopez," Marlins general manager Mike Hill said. "He came ready to make the team."

A Venezuela native who at one point considered going to medical school, Lopez had a sub-1.00 ERA this spring, and his emergence convinced Hill to release veteran starter Dan Straily.

Lopez, one of six Marlins who on Thursday made their first Opening Day roster, is part of a youthful rotation. Jose Urena and Caleb Smith are 27, Trevor Richards is 25, and Sandy Alcantara and Lopez are 23. Richards and Alcantara also made their first Opening Day roster on Thursday.

More young starters are on the way -- prospects such as Nick Neidert, Zac Gallen and Jordan Yamamoto at Triple A -- which means Lopez will be under real pressure to succeed on Saturday.

Meanwhile, Anderson, who has a 3.73 career ERA at Coors -- third-best in franchise history among pitchers with at least 30 starts -- will try to get comfortable on the Marlins Park mound.

Overall last season, he set personal highs for starts (32), innings pitched (176) and strikeouts (164). He pitched at least 7 2/3 scoreless innings three times last season.

One of Anderson's "many strengths is that he's a great competitor," Rockies manager Bud Black said. "Once the season arrives, he will turn it up a notch."

The same can be said for the entire Rockies team, which made the playoffs as a wild-card team last year and has come out swinging to start 2019.

In two games, the Rockies have outscored the Marlins 12-4, allowing Miami hitters just a total of six hits.

Several Rockies players have come up big -- from starting pitchers Kyle Freeland and German Marquez to hitters such as David Dahl and Charlie Blackmon.

Freeland and Marquez both earned wins, combining to allow just four hits and two runs.

Dahl is 4-for-8 with two runs scored and two RBIs in two games. And Blackmon -- the 2017 National League batting champ -- went hitless in five at-bats on Thursday but stormed back on Friday by going 3-for-5 with two RBIs and one steal.

Miami, meanwhile, is getting the long ball -- four homers in two games. But those homers have all been solo blasts, and the Marlins have not manufactured any runs without the big fly.